Rusty Nail Farm... what's in a name?

I often refer to our little homestead as the Rusty Nail. But where did the name come from? First, to call it a farm is generous. Ours is a homestead since the results of any growth are generally consumed here at our household and not for production. But Rusty Nail? Well, when we moved to this place in 2002, it was a bit rough. Having been a homestead for decades, and then a rental for a few years, the overgrowth and farm miscellany just sort of built up. Tearing down cobbled together fences took hauling away many trailer loads. But no matter where I looked, there was a rusty nail. Even now, my trips to the barn and corrals each day are sure to result in at least one nail, sometimes a handful after a cleansing rainfall. Since I am always striding around with my head down (a bad habit for hiking in the wilderness), I often spot them. I think they are just the result of cumulative farmer-ing. And old buildings, and dry wood.

Original log barn, photo from 2002.

Compiled by the late Cornelia Francis

While I often wish I'd do the historical research on our little piece of heaven, I do have one resource to draw from. One of our most memorable friends of the valley, the late Cornelia Francis, compiled a little booklet back in 1977 called "History of the Jocko Valley Road Names." Here she writes that our road was named for William Boscum Martz who "came to the reservation to farm when it was opened to white settlers in 1910." So our nails have been lavishing for quite a while! Her memorable description reads "from its sidehill location, the old Martz place has a sweeping view of the valley below and the mountains and hills surrounding it."

And so Rusty Nail it is.

North facing photo from 2005. Looking at the weeds, all I can say is the more things change, the more they stay the same here at the Rusty Nail